Clumsy Card House
by venomoxide
Summary: He was selfish and greedy, emptying her out from the inside, stealing away every inch of her; devouring her like flames across her aching body. But she was his Elysium, leveling out the unstable planes of his broken mind. He was poison and she, an addict. They were stuck in a dance neither of them could quit. / Humanstuck!AU, Gamrezi, Unrequited Karezi
1. Outcasts

Friendship was a strange thing. Sometimes, it was unexpected and flourished under the strangest of circumstances. In the case of Terezi and Karkat, it thrived because they were both outcasts. Shunned aside in the horrifying world known as 'high school.' It hadn't always been this way, of course. In elementary school, children had thought Terezi was one of the cool kids – her claims to synesthesia had made them revel at her like a god.

But children grew and became cruel.

And suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Terezi fell from the highest of the social pyramid, to being the strange blind girl with a creepy obsession with all things to do with death. More specifically, executions.

It was a new school and neither of them had friends. At first, they spent the first weeks drifting through the halls with no-one by their side. Karkat, huddled within his large hoodie, headphones blaring so he could ignore the idiots around him. Terezi, stumbling past the students who pushed angrily past her, grumbling about being stuck behind the blind girl. But one day, the two bumped into each other.

Terezi fell to the floor, her cane sliding away from her. Karkat had turned, intent on giving some choice words to the newest idiot to ruin his day. But his furrowed brows faltered, eyes wavering as he stared down at the girl, her hands groping for the lost cane.

"Sorry," she said offhandedly, as if she was used to this happening.

He stayed silent for a few seconds before he leaned down and grabbed her cane, pressing it into her palm. She seemed surprised, eyes flickering around his general direction as her eyebrows raised, fingers curling around the cane.

"Thank you..." Her voice was surprisingly genuine as she moved to stand, brushing herself off and straightening the backpack on her shoulders. Karkat rose as well, clearing his throat in a somewhat awkward way.

"Yeah... don't worry about it. You okay?" His reply was quiet, voice not really used to being utilized, considering he didn't speak much.

"I'm fine. I'm used to it." Her shoulders lifted in a shrug, a wide grin gracing her features. A moment passed before she held out her hand, though it was a little bit off centre if she had been meaning to hold it towards him. He still took it, shaking her hand with a small smile. "I'm Terezi."

"Karkat."

Again, the curse of silence fell over them and they let go awkwardly, hands falling to their sides. Without another word, he began to walk away, brushing past her as he tried to hide further in his hoodie once more.

"Hey, wait!"

His gaze turned over his shoulder, staring at her as she stood, one of her arms outstretched, like she was looking for him to hold it.

"Will you walk me home?"


	2. Cherry Red

_"Will you walk me home?"_

Karkat did. Not just that day, either. He walked her home every single day for two whole years, leading right into their eleventh year. And from that day, the two were inseparable. They had no need for other friends, when they would spend each day together. Most of the time, they would sit outside the school, Terezi with her legs across Karkat's lap as she drew pictures in her sketchbook. Of course, they were never very good when she attempted realism. But her abstract pictures impressed even Karkat.

"What's that one?" The question pulled Terezi from her thoughts, a small sound of distractedness leaving her as she turned in his general direction.

"Not sure. Smells like a house of some kind. With a field, maybe..." Her fingers traced reverently across the page, as if it would whisper answers of what is was.

Satisfied with her answer, Karkat leaned his head back, music returning to cover his ears as he let his eyes close. Terezi was the last kind of person he would have ever thought he would be friends with. Let alone of the 'best' variety. She was confident and outgoing and funny and a little bit crazy. Where as he was quiet and prefered it when people without a brain just stayed the fuck out of his way. He had a temper about the things he was passionate about and rarely tried new things.

They were an odd pair, but he liked it. In fact, he more than liked it. Terezi had quickly become more important to him than any of the other people in his life. And while he hoped she felt the same, he didn't have the courage to ask her to go out with him.

_It's such a stupid concept. 'Going out' with someone. Why does it have to be some huge fucking deal? Can't we just fucking acknowledge the fact that we spend every single day together and not slap an idiotic name on it? I mean, for Christ's sakes, everyone already thinks were fucking dating. Why do we have to be dating? Why can't we just kiss sometimes... or something. Fuck. She's staring at me. She asked me something. Fucking think, you twat._

Unfortunately, his inner monologue had ruined his train of thought and he really had no fucking idea what Terezi had asked him.

"What?" He replied, cringing at how obviously stupid that sounded.

"Who's sitting a few feet away from us?"

"... There are like, eight fucking people. Give me a bit more to go off of, Rezi." Karkat's eyes scanned the surrounding field, eyebrows furrowing in their natural position of a slightly irritated frown.

"He smells like... candy. Red candy. Strawberries with a little hint of sour." Terezi had sat up by now, pulling her legs underneath her as she sniffed the air, inhaling deeply, like she was some kind of fucking police dog searching for coke.

"Uh... There's a guy wearing a red hoodie and headphones who is... walking towards us?" The last part of his sentence came off as a question, simply because it was a rare occurence for anyone to approach the pair of outcasts. Especially if one didn't have to. But this guy, who Karkat now noticed was wearing a ridiculous pair of douchebag sunglasses, was headed straight for them, his irritatingly cocky swagger bringing him a step closer with each second.

"What does he want?" Terezi questioned, her head turning from side to side curiously, an occasional sniff tainting the air.

"No clue." And Karkat really had no clue. It wasn't until the kid stopped in front of them, eyebrows raising and his bag thudding down beside the two, that he even opened his mouth.

"Sup. Mind if I sit here? I'm kinda' new."

Karkat narrowed his eyes, not really caring if it was rude. That Southern accent was already irritating, when mixed with a pretentious attitude and a pair of fucking idiotic sunglasses. He had just opened his mouth to say no, when Terezi beat him to the punch, already on her feet as she took a tentative step closer to the new kid.

To Karkat's embarrassment, she literally leaned in, impressively on point considering she couldn't see and_ inhaled_. He wondered if he wished hard enough, that the ground would swallow him whole. Or maybe a tree branch would miraculously fall and knock him out, so he didn't have to witness the certain onslaught of bullying they were about to undergo.

But, to the black haired teens surprise, the new kid didn't even bat an eyelash. Or, at least, he probably didn't. Karkat couldn't really tell with the dude's eyes hidden behind those shades.

"You smell delicious. So yes. You can definitely sit with us." Terezi seemed satisfied, plopping down beside Karkat again, a wide and toothy grin across her features. "I'm Terezi and this is Karkat." She pointed across from her, not seeming to realize that he was actually seated beside her and not in front of her. To help her out, he elbowed her gently in the side, a small scoff being disguised as a cough. She blinked, moving her hand, so it was pointing in the right direction this time.

The dude smiled (well, not really smiled, more just kind of let the corner of his lip turn up in a smirk) and sat next to his bag, eyebrows still raised.

"Well, thank you for the compliment. It's not everyday I get told that I smell delicious. Being told that I'm hella bomb? Yeah. Sure. But not delicious. I'm Dave by the way." The blonde haired kid turned his gaze towards Karkat for the first time since he had arrived, eyes appraising him from behind his shades. "Nice to meet you two. So far everyone else at this school seems like giant dickheads."

This pulled a laugh from Terezi – one of her infamous cackles that never failed to draw attention. But even Karkat felt himself smile a bit, hiding his lips behind the previously forgotten book that had been lying beside him. Maybe this Dave kid wasn't so bad. Even if he did look like he just walked out of a magazine titled '_How to be a Douchebag and Make People Hate You Instantly._'


	3. Envy Green

Somehow, within the span of a week or two, this Dave Strider had wormed his way into the infamous duo. He didn't seem to mind that this automatically deemed him as an outcast as well, but it still confused the hell out of Karkat. From all the stories he would tell, about where he lived back in Texas, he was kind of a big deal. It made him a little suspicious. But, as usual, he couldn't find any reason to act on his suspicion. Terezi informed him, when he voiced his irritation, that it was probably his aversion to things changing. And, as usual, Karkat knew she was right. While he didn't mind having the laid back Southern kid hanging around, it just kind of… didn't fit. It had always just been him and Rezi. Not him, Rezi and the Strider.

But Terezi insisted on keeping him around. She claimed it was due to the delicious red he always wore, but Karkat knew it was most likely due to the fact that she was lonely. He wasn't stupid. He knew that she craved having friends and lots of people around her. Like her older sister, Laluta, seemed to have. And so, he kept his big mouth shut, accepting Dave's insertion into their group.

He wasn't all bad, either, once you got passed the idiotic shades and the blaring dance beats always screaming from his headphones. Aside from all that, he was a pretty fun guy to be around. He always liked to make jokes or poke fun at things that seemed to get Karkat or Terezi down. And while he appreciated it, Karkat knew it would be a long time before he would ever consider the blonde haired kid to be a true friend.

"Okay, that seriously just looks like a giant dick." Dave had leaned over, to inspect one of Terezi's latest drawings, the three of them seated around a table in the cafeteria. Karkat sent him a little glare, always annoyed when he would say rude things about her art.

"Maybe that's what I'm drawing, Dave," she replied, eyebrows waggling as she ignored him, continuing to draw... whatever the hell it was actually supposed to be. In fact, the more Karkat looked at it, the more he had to admit it kind of did look like a giant dick. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"Knew it." Dave leaned back in his seat, seeming satisfied by her snarky reply. That was another thing he would never understand. Sure, Terezi and himself tended to make fun of each other from time to time, but that hadn't come until a year into their friendship. But suddenly Strider comes along and it's all name calling and insults, like they had known each other their whole lives. While he would never admit it, it made him a bit jealous.

There was a short silence that fell between them, save for the sound of Terezi's pencil scratching across the paper, Dave's beats pumping from his headphones and the occasional sound of a page turning as Karkat distractedly flipped a page. It was their usual symphony; the orchestra to a strange mash of people in a friendship. The symphony was broken, however, by the sound of Dave's voice once more.

"Hey, TZ, you wanna go to a party tomorrow night?"

Her head shot up, drawing forgotten as she stared in his general direction, eyebrows raised. A few blinks later and a wide grin had spread across her features, displaying her pearly white teeth.

"A party? Uh, hell yes!"

Karkat's eyes had shot up as well, but instead of being focused on Dave, they were focused on Terezi. Wait, what? She had said yes? She hadn't gone to a party in the entire time that he had known her. Ever.

"What the fuck?" He said, a little bit more aggressively than he had planned.

Dave's shade covered gaze moved towards him, eyebrows raising from behind the sunglasses. "You can come too, Karkat, I just kind of assumed you weren't into those kind of things." If Karkat actually cared enough to put more energy into being annoyed with Dave's presence, the little shrug of his shoulders might have resulted in a punch square to that annoyingly perfect nose of his.

But instead, he shot a quick glare to the albino, before returning his gaze to his best friend. "You're actually going?" He wasn't sure why he was surprised, really. Why wouldn't she jump at the chance to hang out with more awesome people? She obviously enjoyed Dave's company and he was sure the thing would be crawling with people just like him. But Karkat was very much aware that he was possessive of Terezi, even if he had no reason to be. Aside from having a bigger than life crush on her, he was also her best friend. And that meant protecting her. They had just met this kid, for fuck sake! He could be a drug dealer or an ex-con or some kind of axe murderer!

Alright, so maybe the last two were a little outlandish, but he sure as hell wasn't about to let his best friend waltz off to a party with some douchehead they had just met two weeks ago. No way in hell.

Terezi turned her head, a light frown gracing her features. "What's wrong, Karkles?"

His eye twitched at the ridiculous nickname but he sucked in a deep breath, ignoring the urge to call her out on it. Besides, he secretly liked the fact that they had nicknames for each other. It was annoyingly cute.

"It just... doesn't seem like your kind of scene, you know?"

"C'mon! It'll be fun. If you don't want to go, that's fine. We'll watch a movie on Saturday or something, okay?"

As much as he wanted to scream and shout and tell her exactly what had just been running through his head, he chickened out. Terezi wasn't his property. She was her own person. And if she wanted to make new friends, who was he to say something? He was well aware that telling her not to go would make him seem like a bigger dickface than Strider. So he used all his efforts to shrug, curling back up with his book and pretending like he wouldn't be worried sick for the next day and a half.


End file.
